The Official Story: Running with the unprecedented success of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series, Activision went hog wild with extreme sports soon after THPS2, creating snowboarding, surfing and even a wakeboarding game. The first Shaun Palmer Pro Snowboarder didn't fare well in the marketplace, and Activision decided to improve upon it with a new game, new team, etc. The game was officially cancelled in Activision's fall 2002 fiscal statement.

Activision's fall fiscal 2002 announcement reads: "The game was cancelled. Activision also announced that the company is modifying its full fiscal year 2004 and third and fourth quarter outlook. The company is raising its outlook for net revenue for the full fiscal year by $30 million to $780 million, while at the same time it is moving DOOM 3 into its next fiscal year for planning purposes. However, the company is taking a one-time, pre-tax charge of approximately $23 million in the third quarter related to product cancellations including the previously announced titles Trinity, Shaun Palmer's Pro Snowboarder 2 and the sequel to Street Hoops. The after-tax effect of this charge amounts to approximately $0.16 per diluted share."

Behind the Scenes: Little is known about the secret status of this game, but we suspect that Activision was straight up about this one. The extreme sports market changed drastically after a flood of games choked and died in the wake of the original Tony Hawk. And after Activision decided in the wake of the Fall 2002 season to only put out high quality titles, fewer titles and to tighten its QA department, Shaun Palmer's Pro Snowboarder 2 took a final hit in the chin.

The Official Story: The 3DO Company acquired the rights to publish Street Racing Syndicate and announced it on May 30, 2002. On May 28, 3DO closed its doors, and on July 30, the company auctioned off several games, including SRS to Namco. Namco plans on publishing the game in fall 2004.

Behind the Scenes: We won't go into the sad details of 3DO's demise -- though we should for all the crappy Army Men games we were forced to play and review -- but the short and sweet of it is that Namco and developer Eutechnyx have been working on locking down several licenses for the racer.

The Official Story: Conspiracy Games has relentlessly held onto this title and without blinking an eye has claimed it will still publish this game. In response to IGN's questions about the game's future, a Conspiracy representative told us this: "Conspiracy is still going to put the game out. There are no bad relations between Warner Brothers and Conspiracy, both companies get along perfectly. The long time in development is based on a bunch of business technicalities that we cannot talk about."

Behind the Scenes: Only a few know the real story behind Tiny Toons Adventures: Defenders of the Universe's seemingly infinite delay, but both Treasure and Conspiracy are still apparently solidly behind it. We suspect that some kind of licensing snafu has halted the game's progress, and at this point, we suspect that if and when it does come out, it'll be a budget title. That's just our guess, of course.

Current Status: Still officially slated to come out sometime (not necessarily in 2004).

So, that's Part 1 of our series. What lost or MIA games would you like to hear about? Which games do you know something about? Tell us, tell us. Email IGNPS2 at The Lost Games of PS2. To see the first two parts of our ongoing feature, check MIA, Part 1 and MIA Part 2.

Check back in the following week for full updates on games missing in action as IGN further investigates on dozens of other PS2 games. This is just the beginning.